Tabletop bottles are commonly found where food is served, such as restaurants and dining halls, for providing sauces, condiments and other toppings for food products. Some tabletop bottles are squeezable (i.e. made of a flexible material) and include a dispensing outlet to allow the contents (i.e. sauce, condiments or other toppings) to be squeezed out of the bottle.
To allow squeezable tabletop bottles to be reused, such bottles typically include a threaded lid that can be removed to allow the bottle to be refilled. This allows restaurants, dining halls and the like to reuse the bottles and purchase their contents in bulk. However, because of the easily removable threaded lid, it is possible for an individual to tamper with the contents of the tabletop bottle by introducing a foreign substance into the bottle.
Some existing condiment bottles have tamper-resistant caps that cannot be easily removed. These bottles are intended and designed for single-use and are generally discarded when empty. These bottles cannot readily be refilled and reused.
In the retail liquor industry, tamper-resistant security devices exist that can be locked over the cap of a liquor bottle. Such devices can only be removed with a key or a tool. These devices discourage easy opening and emptying of the contained liquor. However, these devices do not allow for dispensing of the contents of the bottles nor can they be disassembled or cleaned according to food safety standards.
Preventing tampering with the contents of reusable squeezable tabletop bottles is made more difficult by the squeezable nature of the bottles. In particular, many locking lids are easily removed by deformation of the bottle. Further complications arise due to cleaning and food safety requirements. For example it may be preferred to have a tabletop bottle that is openable from both ends to facilitate cleaning. Accordingly, there remains a need for a practical, reusable, cleanable, squeezable tabletop bottle that is tamper-resistant.